TODAY IN HISTORY

Today is Monday, Aug. 19, the 231st day of 2019. There are 134 days left in the year.

On this date in:

1812: The USS Constitution defeated the British frigate HMS Guerriere off Nova Scotia during the War of 1812, earning the nickname “Old Ironsides.”

1814: During the War of 1812, British forces landed at Benedict, Maryland, with the objective of capturing Washington D.C.

1848: The New York Herald reported the discovery of gold in California.

1909: The first automobile races were run at the just-opened Indianapolis Motor Speedway; the winner of the first event was auto engineer Louis Schwitzer, who drove a StoddardDayton touring car twice around the 2.5-mile track at an average speed of 57.4 mph.

1934: A plebiscite in Germany approved the vesting of sole executive power in Adolf Hitler.

1942: During World War II, about 6,000 Canadian and British soldiers launched a disastrous raid against the Germans at Dieppe, France, suffering more than 50-percent casualties.

1976: President Gerald R. Ford won the Republican presidential nomination at the party’s convention in Kansas City.

1980: 301 people aboard a Saudi Arabian L-1011 died as the jetliner made a fiery emergency return to the Riyadh airport.

1982: Soviet cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya became the second woman to be launched into space.

1987: A gun collector ran through Hungerford, England, 60 miles west of London, killing 16 people, including his mother, before turning his gun on himself.

1990: Leonard Bernstein conducted what turned out to be the last concert of his career at Tanglewood in Lenox, Mass. with the Boston Symphony Orchestra; the program ended with Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7.

2003: A suicide truck bomb struck U.N. headquarters in Baghdad, killing 22, including the top U.N. envoy, Sergio Vieira de Mello. A suicide bombing of a bus in Jerusalem killed 22 people.

2004: Google began trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market, ending the day up $15.34 at $100.34.